


you in the mirror

by glory_of_bygone_days



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, De-Possessed Julius AU, FE Gen Week, FE Gen Week 2020, Family Fluff, Gen, Gender Issues, Gratuitous italics, Implied/Referenced Transphobia, Nonbinary Character, Sibling Bonding, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, but very much in the sense of 'fuck this shit', if i try a little harder that can become my Signature Tag, julius says fuck gender norms, the tags are all over the place and i'm sorry, yes there's no real angst here i'm surprised myself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:01:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23844151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glory_of_bygone_days/pseuds/glory_of_bygone_days
Summary: Julius likes dresses. Celice doesn't.or: a short piece about not being like others expect you to be, finding understanding in unexpected places, and doing whatever feels right for you
Relationships: Celice | Seliph & Yurius | Julius
Comments: 13
Kudos: 31
Collections: Fire Emblem Gen Week 2020





	you in the mirror

**Author's Note:**

> this started out as a prompt for julius trying on a dress for the first time and then spiraled out of control bc Trans Feelings. he never gets to actually _wear_ a dress...
> 
> a huge thanks to airlock and saru for beta-reading <3
> 
> written for fegenweek 2020

Julius likes dresses.

Thinking back on it, he always admired the way Julia looked in her dresses. Not the formal ones, not the ones that are stiff and more like a birdcage than a piece of clothing. No, it was the ones she wore in private, especially during those wonderfully warm days. They were soft and light and always fluttered so delightfully when she would run, when she would turn around, when she would dance in circles and laugh without a care in the world.

He finds himself yearning to be like that as well, but the _adults_ tell him that he’s a boy and that it’s just not _appropriate_.

He’s a _good boy_ so he listens and wears what the attendant lays out for him even if it itches and makes him feel all weird.

Celice doesn’t like dresses.

Julius asks him why, hesitantly. He says it’s hardly _suitable_ , that they don’t fit him and are way too uncomfortable, anyway. It’s... not quite an answer. There’s something else in his eyes when he says it. Something that feels _vaguely familiar_ in the strangest way.

It doesn’t come up again until the first of Celice’s birthdays that they really, truly, spend together. Some minor noble finds it appropriate to gift him a _dress_ for a reason Julius can’t tell. It’s the first time he sees such taut lines in the face of his brother ( _his brother_ , it’s still so strange to think him _family_ ). He keeps the dress but his thanks towards the messenger is strained.

There’s a strange emotion in his eyes Julius can’t place but when he catches his gaze it turns into some kind of _understanding_. An understanding he feels, too, even if he isn’t sure of _what_.

Some time later, the dress is in Julius’ room instead.

It’s a beautiful piece, really. The material is soft and airy and the way it swishes in the light breeze entering through his window reminds him of days long past.

He looks at it for a long time. When he wakes up in the morning, when he goes to bed at night. Other people would be scolded, surely, but he takes some strange kind of happiness in just being allowed to _look_.

* * *

Julius likes having his hair braided.

Especially on those occasions when Julia carefully braids flowers into his hair where she can fit them. She even lends him her favourite hair clip, sometimes.

He likes the way he feels, likes the way he looks, likes the way Ishtar smiles at him and calls him pretty when she comes to visit once.

(He doesn’t like the way her father looks at him and scoffs, mumbling something about him looking like a girl under his breath. Julius doesn’t understand why wearing a braid and flowers and a beautiful hair clip makes him look like a girl. What’s the difference between a _girl_ and a _boy_ , anyway?)

Celice doesn’t like having his hair braided. Not much, anyway.

Julia does it for him too, once. He lets her but afterwards he looks stiff and uncomfortable so nobody brings it up ever again.

After that, Julius often wonders if Celice doesn’t like his hair. Because ultimately, all he ever does is wash it, brush it and tie it back for convenience. Wouldn’t it be _more_ convenient to cut it off altogether?

But he doesn’t want that, somehow, so Julius instead asks the nice old goldsmith who has been teaching him his craft how to make a pretty hair tie. It turns out beautiful, with a butterfly and many wonderful little ornaments that sparkle in the light.

Julius is… not sure if Celice likes it. He says he does, but he would do so even for a stray pebble picked up on the side of the road. He always talks about appreciating the gesture when asked and Julius thinks he understands what he means.

For one, he’s already more than happy from just being allowed to put it in Celice’s hair. The strands are surprisingly smooth, so he must take care of it after all. Is it the braiding itself that causes offense, then?

...But who _doesn't_ like having their hair braided?

Julius guides Celice over to a mirror so he, too, can see how beautiful it looks and is only a little embarrassed by the giddy smile his reflection shows. It quickly disappears, however, when he sees the frown taking over his brother’s face as he tugs on the hair tie.

“What’s wrong? Do you think it… looks bad?”

Celice huffs, frustrated, and keeps picking at the hair tie, angling his head this way and that way. Then he stops moving around altogether.

“....Don’t you think it makes me look… like a girl…?”

The question is so quiet that Julius almost misses it. He doesn’t understand, not really, so he just knits his brows.

“Well, but you’re not a girl, are you? So why would something like that make you _look_ like one?”

Celice’s head whips around with enough force to knock him off-balance a bit and he stares at Julius. His eyes seem to widen to an impossible degree with each passing second as if he’s processing some sort of divine revelation. Then he tears up and Julius barely has a second to feel guilty and worry about having said something wrong when he’s already enveloped in a tight hug.

“You’re the best sibling anyone could wish for, you know?” His voice is choked up and barely above a whisper and somehow all of it is enough for Julius to start crying, too.

At this moment he thinks that there was no place he would rather be. Perhaps Celice feels the same because he, too, doesn’t let go for a long time.


End file.
